Neem Karoli Baba was born to Lakshmi Narayan Sharma in the tiny agriculturist village of Akbarpur in Central India: Most of his devotees called him Maharaj j i. He left Akbarpur when he was 10 years old. He went to Bavasia in Gujarat where he lived by a little temple and was cared by a woman pujari. It is believed he had knowledge of God when he was 17 years old.
He had a deep interest in social work. He was concerned about the sufferings of the poor. He gave advice to a great number of people and many people came to him to seek spiritual peace and to see him perform miracle. He influenced American and Indian societies.
In the late 1960’s, an American known as Baba Ram Das, authored books telling stories of Neem Karoli Baba and hundreds of westerners went for Maharaj’s darshan. Maharajji established at least 108 temples. He passed away in 1973.